Gaming at Woody's, Parts I and II

The last two Wednesdays I have been playing games at a friend of mine, Woody. The main games we have been playing are Race for the Galaxy and Dominion. Yesterday we added in a third game, Nexus Ops, just to add a little variety.
The first Wednesday we played RtfG twice, I was lucky in the first game to get a military strategy rolling and ended up with three 6 value developments, and easily won the first game. Game two was a slightly different matter as both Woody and Norm had better games. I used the "drown em in planets" strategy and had 2 alien planets by the end of the game, I barely eked out a win that time with both Woody and Norm scoring close to me.
The second game we played that night was Dominion. Woody and Norm had never played Dominion so we played using the first time deck and predictably enough, I won. The advantage I had was similar to the advantage a veteran player of any game has, they know and understand the roots to victory.

The next wednesday night Norm and Woody were playing Race again as I told them I would be late. Norm got his economic engine humming smoothly in the last three turns to score 40 points and Woody used the military to score 36.
We switched to Dominion (now there is a shock!) and played the Big Money deck. The deck may have been big money but the scores were not, Woody won by 2 points over me, with Norm trailing me by 3 and scoring 27 points total. Next up was the Interactive deck, where I used the thief to little effect but still managed to score a slight victory over the two contenders.

We finished the night with Nexus Ops, a light science fiction wargame, that is quick playing and is simple to teach and learn. Nexus Ops uses a board made of hexes and revenue mines are placed on them to use for purchase of troops. A turn begins with the player buying troops, playing any start of turn cards and then doing movement (1 space), fighting (one d6 roll per figure), collecting revenue and picking up secret mission cards (hidden victory points you can play).
The game is a fast game, and with my vast experience (two plays) and teaching Woody and Norm, we still managed to get a game played in 75 minutes from setup to teardown. Woody won by killing my dragon and taking the citadel on the same turn, generating 5 VP and reaching the required 12 before me. I had 10 at games end and Norm had 4.

This weekend, Cal-Con!